When Ann Brown lost the election for editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily to Tim Wheeler, rather than disappear into obscurity after the defeat, she instead made CD history by leaving the paper and forming the CD’s first real competitor on Grounds, The Declaration.

The year was 1973, and women were changing the University.

A Class of Trailblazers
In August of 1970, a group of trailblazing women arrived on Grounds as the first fully coeducational class at the University of Virginia.

The admissions director at the time, Senior Vice President Ernest Ern, tried to fashion a class of women that were students and leaders at their high schools and not just women with strong academic records. It should come as little surprise then that women were quick to join University organizations and rise through the ranks.

That first class produced The Cavalier Daily’s first female managing board member, Mary Bland Love, as well as Ann Brown, the first woman to run for editor-in-chief.

A Novelty at First
Not one person interviewed for this piece said that they thought women were entering a hostile environment when they first arrived on Grounds. At worst, they were seen as a novelty for a bit, but, because of that class’ makeup, they were quick to earn the respect of their peers.

"We were quite mindful that we were the first class of women," Love said. "There were lots of little issues. We all lived in new dorms, and the bathrooms had urinals. It was sort of amusing. But I never felt slighted in a classroom."

The most persecution that any recalled facing was in the social arena where many of the upperclassmen maintained what at that time was a huge University tradition: piling into their cars and driving across the state to the various women’s colleges. Part of that, however, is attributable to the fact that the male-to-female ratio on grounds did not approach 50:50 until later years.

"I remember during orientation week when we’d be sitting in the suites for meetings and packs of upperclassmen would roam on the balconies and peer in," Brown said. "I came from an all-girl’s high school. I think most of us were a little naive about what we were dealing with.

"In hindsight, especially compared to discrimination I later experienced in the working world, we were never really discriminated against in any conscious way," she added. "It was the perfect time for the University to go coed."

However women did not have a completely easy time of it either. A rash of rapes and sexual assaults began within a few years. These prompted the creation of Student Council’s Escort Service, which is still in operation today. Council also distributed hand-held air horns with which women could call for help or ward off attackers.

And despite heavy participation in the major student organizations, the only group that elected a woman as its leader from that first class was Corks and Curls.

"The first women were extremely gifted and tough in that they were willing to take on the male dominance of the culture and hard-working in that they had something to prove," said Saxon Holt, a two-time CD photography editor who was a first-year in 1970.

There From the Start
At The Cavalier Daily, women were down volunteering from the start as cub reporters or production assistants or selling ads.

In fact, the presence of women at the CD offices was not a new thing at all. According to Chuck Woody, the paper’s editor-in-chief in 1968-’69, women had been hired as typesetters for years. In addition, women from the education and nursing schools had volunteered from time to time during the years preceding full coeducation.

Moreover, as the University was going through the process of allowing women to attend, Woody does not remember opponents coming up with a single strong argument against it. "It just made too much sense," Woody said.

By all accounts, the paper welcomed women with open arms in 1970. It makes sense: When has the CD ever had the luxury of turning away interested students? The integration was relatively seamless.

"The CD didn’t compare to organizations that were more network-oriented," Love said. "There was a huge, huge controversy in the ring societies. They were tough to break into, mainly the IMPs and the Zs. And I’m still waiting to see the first woman Seven."

"I didn’t see any rampant prejudice toward women," said Doug Doughty, a sports editor in those years. "We didn’t have many women on the sports staff, but there is still a shortage of women in this realm. My recollection is that women were accepted elsewhere on the staff." Doughty also said that the lack of any women’s sports teams on Grounds at the time probably played a role.

"The CD was very exciting," said Terry Jasperson Lockhart, who worked in the news department during her first two years at UVa. "I got to be in the thick of things. It was amazing that the newspaper had such a profound affect on what people thought."

Profound Influences
In fact, going coed wasn’t the biggest influence on how the paper changed during those early years—arguably Watergate was. After the Watergate story broke, attitudes began to change at the paper.

The CD went from being a publication produced by students who were active in many organizations and loathe to report harshly on fellow students to an organization that was seen as the "University’s journalism school," a characterization that has endured.

"It had less to do with gender than it did with a sea change in attitude in who wanted to work for the paper," Brown said.

The Cavalier Daily took on a more professional feel and attracted students who were willing to devote all their time toward one activity and who were not willing to cozy up to fellow students any more.

For the first time, the paper began focusing more on the actions of the Honor Committee and Student Council and did not turn a blind eye as much as they would have in the past. Also for the first time it printed the transcript from an Honor trial, a highly controversial move for 1975.

Those years also marked the end of the strong ties between fraternities and The Cavalier Daily. In 1972 Steve Wells defeated the Kappa Sigma candidate, and in 1973 Wheeler defeated Brown.

No one contends that Wheeler’s victory was gender related. In fact, as evidence of how quickly women were integrated into the University, Brown was seen as the old-guard, Kappa Sigma candidate.

Competition Begins
The 1973 elections were notable for another reason: They gave birth to the Dec.

"The night after elections we all went back to Watson, where I was a program assistant, and sat in the living room and commiserated," Brown said. "The Dec was [former CD EIC] Peter Shea’s idea. He thought there was room for another news publication on Grounds. We realized that there was not enough revenue to support two dailies yet, but a weekly made sense."

Less than two months later the first issue was printed.

Founded by Brown, Philip Kimball—who lost the race for managing editor in the same election—and other former CD staffers, the Dec launched on Founder’s Day, April 13, 1973, in a form that is remarkably similar to what it is today. It was a weekly news magazine that was supposed to be informative and irreverent. And, yes, the ever-popular Poodah’s Corner was present in that first issue.

The Dec competed with The Cavalier Daily both editorially and for advertising revenue, although due to its weekly schedule it focused primarily on features and think pieces rather than breaking news.

It also was established as an editorial outlet for students who did not want to devote their time and energies to one organization, as The Cavalier Daily began demanding in those years.

"It gave us a lot of competition for advertisers," Bland said. "We were going after the same crowd." Steve Zell, another former CDer, gave ads expertise to the Dec. "He knew the same advertisers we did."

Women on the Board
Despite Brown’s loss as editor-in-chief, women did ascend to CD power with the 1973 elections. Love was elected business manager and became the CD’s first female managing board member. From then on it was the norm for at least one woman to be elected to the board each year, with quite a few boards featuring a majority of women.

Brown’s attempt laid the groundwork for the CD’s first female EIC—Marjorie Leedy Green—to be elected in 1976. Green, who now lives in Germany and could not be reached for this article, had a tenure that was remembered by classmates as a productive year.

"We all knew at the time that she was the first female editor-in-chief for The Cavalier Daily," said Doug Weisenberger, who served as managing editor on Green’s board and also served as news editor with Green. The Richmond Times-Dispatch even ran an item mentioning her election.

The managing board that year featured one other man and one other woman, Leonard Marsico and Victoria Traylor Garten, which Weisenberger said created a good balance.

"It was a good year," Weisenberger said. "We did some innovative things. We moved from an eight-column to a six-column format and we had a number of tabloid inserts that year, which were new to the CD at the time."

Ties that Bind
Despite going separate ways in later years—Love stayed with the CD, Brown formed the Dec, and Lockhart left the paper entirely—they all point to The Cavalier Daily as a place that helped bind them together, as well as with other classmates of both genders.